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Unread 01-11-2011, 08:51 AM
Carol Taylor Carol Taylor is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
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Bingo, Richard. In some languages the infinitive serves as both infinitive (root verb) and noun (gerund). Using the infinitive in English here doesn't make much sense. In idiomatic English we wouldn't say "to cry consumes my heart." We might say "the urge to cry consumes my heart" or "the desire to cry consumes my heart" but not "to cry consumes..." We'd say "crying consumes."

This is the kind of distinction a computer translation program might overlook but a translator should not: what is perfectly correct in the source language (infinite as noun) being translated into awkward or incorrect usage in the target language (infinitive as root verb).

Carol
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